Japanese Prime Minister Abe Shinzo's Thursday visit to the Yasukuni Shrine was widely condemned both at home and abroad.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe (2nd R) visits the war-linked Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo, Japan, on Dec. 26, 2013. [Photo/Xinhua]

Abe's visit is the first visit by an acting Japanese prime minister since Junichiro Koizumi visited on Aug. 15 in 2006. The notorious Yasukuni Shrine honors Japan's war dead, including 14 Class-A convicted WWII criminals.

The reckless move — widely viewed as rewriting public memory on Japan's militaristic past — enraged Japan's victimized neighbors including China and South Korea and disappointed Japan's traditional ally the United States.

Observers said the hard-core nationalist Abe is ruining the stability of Northeast Asia and that he seems to believe it is worthwhile to sacrifice honesty about history in order to revitalize Japan's assertive style of expansion before World War II.

An official of the Japan's New Komeito Party, a small party of the ruling bloc which also groups Abe's Liberal Democratic Party, said that the party always asks the prime minister avoid visiting the shrine, adding the visit by the prime minister is regrettable.

"The prime minister's visit to the Yasukuni shrine will make Japan's relations with China and South Korea tougher," the official was quoted by local media as saying.

Natsuo Yamaguchi, leader of the New Komeito Party, said he expressed opposition to the prime minister before the shrine visit, adding that Abe has to cope by himself with the impacts on Japan's foreign relations as he clearly understands the aftermath of his visit.

Katsumasa Suzuki, secretary general of the People's Life Party, said that taking Japan's position in the East Asian region into consideration, the visit will enrage its neighboring countries.

Meanwhile, Secretary General of Japan's Social Democratic Party Mataichi Seiji criticised Abe's move as unbelievable, saying it is an active militarism though the prime minister said he would follow an active pacifist road.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi summoned Japanese Ambassador to China Masato Kitera to lodge a strong protest against Abe's shrine visit. Beijing vowed zero tolerance for Abe's touching the bottomline of the bilateral relationship, and for betraying the commitment of his government and his predecessors, he said.

Japan must bear "full responsibility for the serious political consequences" of the visit, he said, adding Abe's action has pushed Japan in an "extremely dangerous" direction.

The shrine used to serve as a spiritual tool and symbol of Japanese militaristic aggression, and Abe's pilgrimage is "a flagrant provocation against international justice", Wang said.

South Korean Culture Minister Yoo Jin-ryong said in a statement that "our government cannot repress lamentation and rage over Abe's paying of respects at the Yasukuni shrine, which glorifies its colonial aggression and enshrines war criminals".

The US Embassy in Japan released a written statement saying that "the United States is disappointed that Japan's leadership has taken an action that will exacerbate tensions with Japan's neighbors."

Washington hopes that Japan and its neighbors will "find constructive ways" to deal with sensitive issues from the past, the statement said.

Yang Bojiang, deputy director of the Institute of Japan Studies at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said Abe's visit will deal a heavy blow to Japan's international image and further isolate the country.

"Abe is risking support from within both Japan and the United States, and his political life will come to an earlier end," Yang warned.

Japan has strained its diplomatic relationships with China, South Korea and Russia in the past two years because of disputes over islands and historical issues, and the situation has also been a headache for Washington.

James Fallows, a national correspondent for The Atlantic Monthly, said, "there is almost nothing a Japanese prime minister could have done that would have inflamed tempers more along the Japan-China-South Korea-US axis than to make this visit".

"Americans who visit the ‘historical' museum at the shrine (as I have done) will note its portrayal of Japan being "forced" into World War II by US economic and military encirclement," Fallows wrote in his latest online article.

Abe is deliberately stirring up the situation to "make sure the tension does not fade away", said Feng Wei, a professor of Japanese studies at Fudan University in Shanghai.

"Because there will be no more excuses for his plan of revising Japan's pacifist Constitution if there is no tension in Japan's neighborhood," Feng said.

The visit was made as Abe's public support this month dropped to a record low since he retook office last December.

Akihiro Nonaka, a professor at the School of Political Science at Waseda University in Tokyo, said "the enshrining of the Class A criminals is unconstitutional, according to Japan's Supreme Court".

"He does not show respect for the countless Asian people who died in the war," Nonaka added.

Zhou Yongsheng, a professor of Japanese studies at China Foreign Affairs University, said what is behind Abe's pilgrimage is the accelerating pace of the Japanese government in seeking a right-wing style of governing, which is "bringing a huge threat to regional peace".

"As Abe is bent on eliminating all legislative restrictions against Japanese armed forces waging a war, the international community will be unable to rein in Japan from taking such a dangerous step," Zhou warned.

The visit "raises the prospect of even deeper hostility between an already isolated Tokyo and its neighbors," the Washington Post said in a report.

"The visit seems to make it obvious that Mr. Abe's economic policies were a guise to hide his nationalistic intent," said Koichi Nakano, a political science professor at Sophia University in Tokyo, according to the Wall Street Journal.

The visit will likely "hurt Tokyo's ties with Washington, considering how the U.S. has been pushing for Japan to improve ties with its Asian neighbors," said Nakano.

"This shows how arrogant Abe is toward the neighboring countries, how unrepentant Japan is about its past war crimes," The New York Times quoted Yang Soon-im, who runs the Association for the Pacific War Victims, as saying.

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